Blackhat

[flyonthewall2983]

The Insider has no commentary track on either Blu-ray or DVD

[Finch]

Updated Amazon specs suggest that the DC is exclusive to the limited edition. This is not unexpected though: Last Emperor standard edition also dropped the DC.

[chrisandy007]

If anyone is interested, I managed to compile a list of all the changes b/t the theatrical and director's cuts of Blackhat: https://kevrania.wordpress.com/2023/...irectors-cuts/

[CSM126]

Beaverhat

[Finch]

Weird that he barely mentions the Director's Cut. He might not even have watched it for review.

[What A Disgrace]

Since this disc is out, should it be moved into the proper subforum?

[MichaelB]

Weird that he barely mentions the Director's Cut. He might not even have watched it for review.

This AVForums review mentions it in some detail.

[feihong]

Finally seeing this director's cut. I don't think the film is any more than marginally better in this version.

[beamish14]

Finally seeing this director's cut. I don't think the film is any more than marginally better in this version.

Like Public Enemies and its photography, this film has an error in its DNA with the casting casting of Mr. Hemsworth, and no editing can rectify that

[John Cope]

Finally got to see the fabled Director's Cut of this and was greatly impressed. I haven't seen the theatrical version enough to really be able to tell you what the extent of the differences are beyond the much noted moving of the nuclear reactor meltdown scene from the beginning to much later. Frankly, it's so well placed here that it's hard to imagine it ever being anywhere else or how that could have even worked (guess I'll have to look at the theatrical again after all). The film also has a breakneck pace from start to finish that sweeps you up into it; it's utterly propulsive and never relents.

Part of Mann's accomplishment in this is to draw attention to transitory states and be able to work that into an integrated presentation. The film is front loaded with an acknowledgment of and confrontation with abstraction; in this case it's both the abstraction of pure numbers on a digital display translating into action set pieces as well as the Fincher-esque opening computer animation of the inside of computer chips translating into displays of terrorism. He understands the flux within that continuum of abstract or theoretical and presence or expressive action; it's about how his filmmaking itself holds both ends of the spectrum together.

Many noted that they couldn't accept Hemsworth as a hacker; but what just as many failed to note was the simple reality that this was a portrait of hacker as action hero and in that sense a more mythic presentation was appropriate. His character is tough, even hard boiled, and (with suspiciously Mann inflected accent in tow) seems very much a proxy for Mann, a fantastical self-conceptualization of a technician in action. And why not as this conceptualization applies to everyone here as it almost always does for Mann's characters, defined as they are by an utterly no-nonsense professionalism. Hemsworth's character is another of Mann's outlaw figures too who are eventually ennobled by their committed action. So he makes a decision to hack some servers late in the film which he knows will likely set his own government back upon him again, but it's a decision he is willing to make. Similarly, he chooses to follow up on and finish the hunt for the film's central terrorist villain even when he does not have to and when it would probably be wiser not to; and yet he does this out of both a sense of duty to his fallen friends and the sense that he may be one of the few who can get close enough in time. The personal motives may compromise the purity of the professionalism but also adds to it, revealing an elemental heart to the human. The final confrontation with the villain (another in Mann's gallery of shadowy rogues, ghosts in the machine) is beautifully staged but unflinchingly brutal, analog and hand-to-hand, once again emphasizing that tension in the flux between the high tech, rarefied or abstract and an elemental human condition. In Blackhat even love has a desperate ferocity, like it could all be the last time.

[nicolas]

Finally got to see the fabled Director's Cut of this and was greatly impressed. I haven't seen the theatrical version enough to really be able to tell you what the extent of the differences are beyond the much noted moving of the nuclear reactor meltdown scene from the beginning to much later. Frankly, it's so well placed here that it's hard to imagine it ever being anywhere else or how that could have even worked (guess I'll have to look at the theatrical again after all). The film also has a breakneck pace from start to finish that sweeps you up into it; it's utterly propulsive and never relents.

Part of Mann's accomplishment in this is to draw attention to transitory states and be able to work that into an integrated presentation. The film is front loaded with an acknowledgment of and confrontation with abstraction; in this case it's both the abstraction of pure numbers on a digital display translating into action set pieces as well as the Fincher-esque opening computer animation of the inside of computer chips translating into displays of terrorism. He understands the flux within that continuum of abstract or theoretical and presence or expressive action; it's about how his filmmaking itself holds both ends of the spectrum together.

Many noted that they couldn't accept Hemsworth as a hacker; but what just as many failed to note was the simple reality that this was a portrait of hacker as action hero and in that sense a more mythic presentation was appropriate. His character is tough, even hard boiled, and (with suspiciously Mann inflected accent in tow) seems very much a proxy for Mann, a fantastical self-conceptualization of a technician in action. And why not as this conceptualization applies to everyone here as it almost always does for Mann's characters, defined as they are by an utterly no-nonsense professionalism. Hemsworth's character is another of Mann's outlaw figures too who are eventually ennobled by their committed action. So he makes a decision to hack some servers late in the film which he knows will likely set his own government back upon him again, but it's a decision he is willing to make. Similarly, he chooses to follow up on and finish the hunt for the film's central terrorist villain even when he does not have to and when it would probably be wiser not to; and yet he does this out of both a sense of duty to his fallen friends and the sense that he may be one of the few who can get close enough in time. The personal motives may compromise the purity of the professionalism but also adds to it, revealing an elemental heart to the human. The final confrontation with the villain (another in Mann's gallery of shadowy rogues, ghosts in the machine) is beautifully staged but unflinchingly brutal, analog and hand-to-hand, once again emphasizing that tension in the flux between the high tech, rarefied or abstract and an elemental human condition. In Blackhat even love has a desperate ferocity, like it could all be the last time.

Great comment, thanks so much! Can't wait for my UHD to arrive soon and obviously for the DC. I already loved the film in its theatrical cut but this sounds wonderful and certainly as definitive as possible even for Mann standards when it comes to the DC. So glad that Arrow chose to wait and include it.

[Drucker]

Both limited edition of the UHD and BD seem out of stock on the Arrow website. I bought my copy from Amazon. The DC is exclusive to the limited edition.